A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

The domain of prosody includes linguistic phenomena such as intonation, rhythm, stress, and prominence. It thus concerns the suprasegmental features that co-occur with phonemic segments (PHONOLOGY 1).

            In human languages, prosodic markers can be used to encode: i) grammatical functions such as the force of the utterance (e.g., declarative, interrogative, imperative, SYNTAX 1), ii) broader communicative functions (e.g., irony, sarcasm, emphasis), iii) the emotional state of the signer (e.g., surprise, anger, satisfaction). Given this variety of functions, prosody constitutes a complex interface. To illustrate these functions, below we provide a short utterance accompanied with different prosodic contours. Being the lexical units (almost) the same in the four examples, we can isolate the contribution of different prosodic markers. These can be realised manually through sign modification or non-manually through facial expressions, head and body movements.

 

 

 

            a.         table clean

            ‘The table is clean.’ (declarative)

 

 

 

                                              ht-f

                                                re  

            b.         table clean

            ‘Is the table clean?’ (polar interrogative)

 

 

 

                                                                    we

                                                                    md

            c.         table pe clean_[prolonged]

            ‘This table is so clean!’ (ironic)

 

 

 

                                              we

                        md                ht-f

            d.         table clean

            ‘The table is clean!’ (surprised)        

 

Examples (a) and (b) show that in LIS a declarative sentence is distinguished from a polar interrogative by means of non-manual markers. Specifically, neutral eyebrows and neutral head position mark the declarative, whereas raised eyebrows (re) and forward head/body lean (ht-f) mark the polar interrogative. In such instances, non-manual markers function as prosodic markers in defining the illocutionary force of a sentence.

            When irony is applied to a sentence, we observe a clash between the literal evaluation expressed by the signs (positive or negative) and the signer’s attitude (compliment or criticism). In the ironic sentence shown above (c), irony is signalled by specific prosodic markers: the prolonged articulation of the evaluative manual sign (clean) and non-manual markers such as wide-open eyes (we) and mouth-corners down (md). The fact that the line of the lips turns down indicates that the signer wants to convey criticism. This is clearly in contrast with the positive evaluation expressed by the sign clean. This clash between mouth position and manual sign triggers the ironic interpretation.

            Sentence (d) demonstrates that prosody can convey emotional states, too. In this case, the signing production is accompanied by initial mouth-corners down (md) and then forward head tilt (ht-f) and wide-open eyes (we). These non-manual cues taken together convey surprise.

            As shown in the examples above, prosodic markers do not necessarily occur one after the other, but they can be produced simultaneously in a layering fashion. This possible overlapping distribution is a typical feature of sign language prosody.

In sign languages, prosody can be conveyed in different ways and with different articulators. An important distinction that must be acknowledged is that between manual and non-manual prosodic markers. If we look at the prosody conveyed by the hands, the main manual prosodic features are: the movement component, the spreading of the non-dominant hand, and hand switching. Movement includes features, such as rhythm, length or duration, and tension. Even absence of movement (i.e. pauses) can convey important prosodic information, for example the boundary between prosodic constituents. The non-dominant hand used in two-handed signs (PHONOLOGY 1.4.2) may be maintained in the following signs. This spreading phenomenon usually marks a precise prosodic domain. It can also produce a semantic contribution as in the case of buoys (LEXICON 1.2.3). Hand switching (i.e. the reversal from one hand to the other) can represent an indicator of prosodic boundary. Prosodic markers realised non-manually may involve facial expressions (eyebrows, eye aperture, eye gaze, cheeks, mouth, lips, chin position), mouthing and mouth gestures, head position, shoulder position, and body posture.

            Prosodic markers can also be classified according to what is actually marked. This categorisation distinguishes between boundary markers (or edge markers), which mark either the beginning or the end of prosodic constituents, and domain markers, which spread over the entire extent of prosodic constituents. Below, we show a LIS sentence to illustrate the distinction between boundary and domain prosodic markers and also the layering distribution of different markers.

 

 

 

                                                sq eb

                                                re  hn

                ‘donna’ [pe]    ‘prima’        [lavo]            ‘banca’

            woman pe_a first ix_a      work bank_b inside_b

            ‘The woman who is first (on the list) works in a bank.’

 

From a syntactic perspective, this example is composed by a relative clause (woman pe first ix) followed by a main clause (work bank inside). These two larger prosodic domains are differentiated by the presence/absence of domain prosodic markers: squinted eyes and raised eyebrows (i.e. the typical non-manual markers of relative clauses, SYNTAX 3.4.6) spread over the first domain, whereas neutral facial expressions mark the second one. Moreover, the two prosodic domains are separated by specific boundary prosodic markers, namely a signing pause, an eye blink, and a head nod. Another observation concerns the spreading of mouthing. Specifically, we find that prima, ‘first’, spreads over the signs first and the adjacent indexical ix. A similar case is the spreading of banca ‘bank’ over the signs bank and the adjacent preposition inside. Both cases are interesting from a prosodic perspective because they show that mouthing is used as a domain marker signalling the presence of a small prosodic constituent (i.e. prosodic word, PHONOLOGY 2.2.1).

            Prosodic descriptions usually deal with two types of domains, which are reflected in the structure of this chapter: i) domains at the lexical level, such as syllable and foot (PHONOLOGY 2.1) and ii) domains above the lexical level, such as prosodic word, phonological phrase, intonational phrase, and phonological utterance (PHONOLOGY 2.2). The remainder of the chapter addresses the issues of intonation (PHONOLOGY 2.3) and interaction (PHONOLOGY 2.4). For further details about interaction in LIS, the reader is referred to PRAGMATICS 10.